Page 62 of Always You (A Lilac Bay Novel)

“Hang on.” Jill stood up, her hands on her hips. “Are you telling me that you’re going to make us eat cookies made out of kale, and you’re not even going to give us any booze to deal with that fact?”

Posey looked miserable. “Paul and I are doing this cleanse,” she mumbled, scuffing her red converse against the stone floor. “So I can’t drink. Or eat chocolate.”

“And you wanted to drag us all down into that hell?” Iris asked. “Nice one, Posey.”

“Absolutely not,” Tessa agreed. “I did not pay for a babysitter so I could drink green tea and eat kale cookies.”

“The kale is only a little part of it,” Posey argued, but no one was listening anymore, instead grumbling to their neighbors about the waste of a night.

“Oh, I feel bad for her,” Jenny murmured. “It looks like she tried hard.”

“She broke the cardinal rule of the Libbies,” I said.

“What’s that?”

“No healthy shit.”

Jenny giggled but cut off when a few people stood up. “Does that mean it’s over?”

She looked so disappointed at the prospect that I felt bad.

“Let’s see if we can turn things around,” I told her, standing. “Who wants to order pizza?” I called out.

“Ooh, pizza would be great,” Libby said. “I’m starving.”

“And we can raid Libby’s fudge counter,” I added. “And her wine.”

“Great,” she said as everyone chattered in agreement. “Clean me out right before the season starts.”

“Would you rather eat mung bean cookies?” I asked.

She was up before the words were out of my mouth. “Who wants to help me with the wine?” she called.

Ten minutes later we were all munching on fudge and drinking wine while we waited for the pizza guy. Posey finished packing up her supplies and joined Jenny, Libby, Iris and I at our table.

“Sorry, Posey,” Jenny said. “That was kind of mean of everyone. The cookies sounded really…interesting.”

Posey shrugged. “It’s my own fault. I broke the cardinal rule of the Libbies.”

“See,” I muttered. “Told you.”

“It was all Paul’s idea anyhow,” Posey continued. “He’s been trying all these new recipes for this cleanse thing.” I met Iris’s eyes across the table and wondered, not for the first time, what in the world Posey saw in her fiancé.

“Anyhow, we’ve been eating nothing but veggies and juice for the past week.” Posey laughed a little but I thought it sounded sad. “So pizza is sounding pretty darn good to me right about now.”

From the front of the store, a voice called out a hesitant hello. “We’re back here!” Jill called, her eyes flashing in a way that made me feel sorry for the pizza guy. He clearly had no idea what he was walking into. Luckily the kid turned out to be no more than fifteen. Young even by Jill’s standards.

“This is much better,” Cora said a few moments later, bringing a paper plate back to her table. Posey merely whimpered as she scarfed down her slice in seconds flat.

“What do we do now?” Jenny whispered.

“Now it’s time for the good stuff,” I told her. “Now we drink and gossip.”

The girls didn’t disappoint. No sooner had I finished speaking than Cora called out to me from a neighboring table. “Hey, Riley! What’s this I hear about you hooking up with the hot new dining room manager from the Big Hotel?”

“Oooh,” several of the women chorused.

“Riley, you got yourself a man?” Sherry called. “Feel free to let him sleep over at the apartment, I don’t mind.”